Minutes of the January 4, 2009 SRVA Board Meeting

Attending: Ken Cain, Paul Albright, Carmen Foster, Emilie Kralicek, Michelle Prater, Kim Kenyon, Steve Kenyon, Patsy Burke, Del Hughes, Arleen Hughes, Bernie Goldfine, Bob Hume, JoAnn Hollis, Dale Smith, and Apple Kridakorn.

Guests: Courtney Eck, Jim Kirkpatrick, Anthony Marshall, and David Russ

Commissioner Ken Cain called the meeting to order, and declared a quorum to be present. Ken announced that Brenda will not be here due to a family emergency, and that Rose Powell and Pat Martin will not attend due to illness.

The board reviewed the agenda. Ken added an item regarding tournament reports that Carmen wants to discuss under miscellaneous.

Ken asked the visitors to introduce themselves, and Courtney, David, Jim and Anthony did so.

The board reviewed the 8/9/08 minutes. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Dale Smith, 2nd by Carmen Foster, and was approved.

Ken gave the Commissioner’s report. He noted the USAV re-organization is complete. A membership fee increase is on the next national board meeting agenda. He noted the new SRVA membership registration/tournament software is up and running.

Paul Albright gave the VP report. He’ll reserve certain comments for adult issues. He reported that he recused himself from an appeal of Ken’s decision involving a conflict between the SRVA Adult Regional Championships and a junior event sanction request. The appeal was withdrawn.

Steve Kenyon gave the official’s report. Online testing is being used again this year for officials. CDs to train referees and scorekeepers have been sent to club officials, and were sent out a bit late due to a delay in production of the CDs. We’re having new referee training events in Atlanta on 1/10/09, in Nashville 0n 1/11/09, and possibly in Huntsville on 1/11/09. These clinics are to train high school referees and provisional USAV referees. Patsy noted she has no one to add at the moment, but there is an Alabama Juniors tournament on 1/24/09.

Steve is still on the Officials Division Commission, and the PAVO/USAV interface committee. He noted a problem with the disqualifiers involved in background screening for officials, and that DUI as one of the disqualifier issues. I noted that SRVA does not plan to screen officials this year and not until this is resolved.

Kim Kenyon noted a question regarding whether to incorporate scorekeeper training at the scheduled referee trainings. We don’t think it will work and don’t plan to do so for now.

Ken noted the SRVA membership numbers are flat for now, down about 400 from this time last year. The board discussed the bad economic situation in our area of the country.

Ken gave the financial report. Steve noted the increased $250,000 FDIC coverage might cover only up to $100,000.in assets in some cases. Ken will check on this.

In response to a question, it was noted that there have been no further developments in the April 2008 undelivered t-shirt issue.

JoAnn will send us info re K & N t-shirts re a possible future bid for t-shirts.

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OLD BUSINESS

The 2010 Junior Regional Championship date was discussed. GWCC may not be available on the dates we selected. We’ll check into the first week in May with GWCC. The possibility of a separate bid tournament was discussed.

A motion was made and seconded to check into the first weekend in May 2010 at the GWCC [the dates of competition would be 5/1-2], and the motion was approved.

We discussed 5/8-9/10 as a possible alternative date. It was informally agreed to check that as well.

Paul asked whether we are willing to make less money by allowing a vendor to come in and sell t-shirts, and possibly allow other vendors. Paul noted that this option would provide significantly less t-shirt income to the SRVA, and others agreed. Ken noted he will probably use a flat fee for vendors. Steve suggested we consider using an exclusivity clause in our vendor agreements [for example, not to sell t-shirts]. The consensus of the board is to sell our own t-shirts, and allow vendor agreements with exclusivity agreements that at least cover our costs plus our fees.

Ken presented an NAVR Report. He noted he has paid the $500 membership fee, and about 15 regions have joined. The NAVR is at present an empty shell which is still obtaining D & O insurance, and what services it might provide are not yet decided. Kim noted it might be a bargaining entity with USA Volleyball.

Ken reported the settlement of the Border issue with Palmetto, by a decision at the ROD level. That decision supported our position regarding membership registration requirements and the right of SRVA to sanction tournaments within the boundaries of our region.

NEW BUSINESS

Ken reported on the possible membership fee increase that will be presented at the upcoming January 2009 USAV board meeting. A motion was made by Steve Kenyon, and seconded by Bernie Goldfine to oppose any membership fee increase by the national office. The motion was passed

The board then conducted the board elections. We noted that with today’s attendance [15], it will require eight votes to get elected. It was also noted that each board member can vote for as few as one up to a maximum of 27 candidates [and there are 28 candidates].

Bernie Goldfine moved that we announce the board election results alphabetically at this meeting in open session, except for the non-current board member candidates who will be notified in person in the lobby. Those who are not in attendance will be notified by email within 24 hours. The motion was seconded by Kim Kenyon, and was passed.

The non-current board member candidates in attendance made comments and responded to questions. These people were Courtney Eck, Jim Kirkpatrick, Anthony Marshall, and David Russ.

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The non-board candidates left the room, and the board discussed the slate of candidates. The current board members then voted by secret written ballot. The board briefly recessed while the votes were counted by Paul Albright and Dale Smith. The meeting was called back to order. Ken announced those elected to the new board, and that they will take office on 7/1/09. The new board members for 2009-2012 are Paul Albright, Patsy Burke, Kenneth Cain, Jr., Courtney Eck, Carmen Foster, Bernie Goldfine, JoAnn Hollis, Arleen Hughes, Del Hughes, Bob Hume, Kim Kenyon, Steve Kenyon, Jim Kirkpatrick, Emilie Kracilek, Apple Kridakorn, Pat Martin, Anthony Marshall, Brenda McIntosh, Rose Powell, Michelle Prater, Dale Smith, Lynne Stopford, and Keith Weller.

Dale moved to re-elect the current slate of officers. The motion was seconded by Kim Kenyon. Emilie Kralicek asked if others were interested, and no one expressed interest in being considered. The motion was.passed.

The board discussed the new tournament results reporting system which is part of the new SRVA software. Ken’s sanction-approval email to tournament directors asked them to enter tournament competition results, and that doesn’t match the handbook. A motion was made to change the handbook to add verbiage to require that tournament directors enter online results by the Monday following the tournament. Arleen Hughes seconded the motion. A friendly amendment was proposed to forward scoresheets by the first Monday after the tournament, but was not accepted. The motion as originally offered was passed.

Adult issues were discussed. Bernie noted that the non-monetary costs are more harmful to adult participation, items like officiating, player registration, etc. David suggested we talk about this further at another time outside this meeting, especially when people are less tired. He thinks you need a lot of lower level players to support competitive tournaments. Ken suggested we locate gyms in six cities and subsidize them. Bernie noted we need to overcome the perception by adults that we don’t care about adult tournaments. Steve noted we need people to serve as team reps/organizers. Courtney said

we should post free play sites, and before junior tryouts the region should host some pickup player tournaments. Bernie suggests we pay someone to build a database of gym

availability. Courtney has a large database of contacts, and so does Bob. Four people will work on increasing adult tournaments in the Atlanta area: Bernie, Courtney –Chair, Arleen and Bob. Anthony will inquire in Nashville, and Jim will do so in Huntsville. George Murphy.was suggested as a possible person to check into increasing adult tournaments in Birmingham.

Regarding the August board meeting date, the board was advised of possible meeting dates: the last weekend in July, the second weekend in August [8/8 or 9/2009], and 8/15 or 16/2009. Bernie will check into using Kennesaw State as a meeting site.

The meeting was adjourned.